| Posted: Mar. 17 2005,19:34 |
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PROGRESS: Has your organization seen
progress toward a culture of peace and nonviolence in your domain of
action and in your constituency during the first half of the Decade? |
The
first half of the Decade (2001-5) is the period that Trans Cultural
Studies has progressed helping Japanese people to realize the
importance of a culture of peace and nonviolence, which has been
successfully done through our Conflict Resolution seminars in which
people are expected to acquire a new method of conflict
resoution, that is, Collaborative Negotiation Skills Training. This
method leads to nonviolent resolution of conflicts in a long run, so I
believe, considering that Japanese traditiona way of avoiding conflict
may more often than not cause violence.
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OBSTACLES: What are the most important obstacles that have prevented progress?
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The
seminar participants are varied coming from different fields of
activities in Japan. Nevertheless, those coming to our
seminar are limited to only those who are motivated very much.
There are some others who refuse to come. They are mostly those in power.
So I think "power" is, therefore, an obstacle which prevents the progress of a culture of peace in Japan.
The reality is that within Japanese groups or organizations of
any kind, power issues sometimes cause many conflicts among people
there.
Those who have been confronted with conflict with those
in power usually come to our seminar, wishing to resoluve their
conflicts.
Those in power, on the contrary, seem to
think that there is no need for them to learn something new. Many
of those in power seem dilike the idea of changing the current system,
in fear of loosing their current position and priviledge. They
are very conservative. This is a problem or an obstacle for us to
promote Collaborative Negotiation Skills Training as we think it is
crucial for both sides sitting at a table engaged in two-way productive
communication.
A top-manager of one of the big Japanese
companies said to me that he needs not to take my seminar as he thinks
there is no conflicts around him.
Those most
needed to learn Collaborative Negotiation Skills Training has been
reluctant to take part in our seminar, as they think they will lose
their power---Again,
"power issue" is an obstacle for our activities.
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ACTIONS: What actions have been
undertaken by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence during the first half of the Decade?
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Since
1998 when we established TCS in Japan, we have organized Conflict
Resolution seminars in many parts of Japan, targeted at a wide range of
participants. The participants include college students, business
people, female workers wishing to be empowered, local government
officials, and non-profit organizations such as FASID (Foundation For
Advanced Studies on International Development).
As you
may have noticed, our clients are varied in its kinds. This means that
many Japanese people have had many conflicts and some difficulties in
communication with their friends, clients, colleagues, bosses,
subordinates, spouses and companions, and non-Japanese people. Most of
the Japanese people used to communicate each other not directly,
but indirectly within high context communication atmosphere.
Accordingly, they used to solve their conflicts by avoiding, or
compromising. They do some negotiating sometimes, so they say when I
ask their conflict resolution method. This is competitive negotiation
in which most of them are forced to compromise mainly due to power
existing between boss and subordinate, teacher and student, parent and
children, and men and women and so on.
We have observed
recently that globalization has gradually penetrated into every corners
of Japanese society, changing not only Japanese business models,
Japanese life styles and their mentality to some extent. Being in a
transition period of such changes especially in the decade, Japanese
people seem to have realized that their traditional conflict
resolution methods cannot work any more. They have realized it when
noticing through news reports the increasing number of domestic
violence, juvenile delinquencies, dreadful crimes and many other
unprecedented social problems taking place in modern Japan. I think one
cause of the new type of conflicts we now have in many fields of
activity in Japan can be attributed to "lack of communication" among
each other involved in conflicts. Unable to establish a good
collaborative communication each other, many people see others as their
enemies, This is how easily they use violence as they must defend
themselves from their enemies.
In our seminar, we
explain that we should begin by expressing oneself to others, as we
cannot understand others unless we know each other by exchanging
information. We have so far observed that many Japanese people are not
good at communication, especially not good at informing skills. It is
partly because "being silence" has been culturally and traditionally
valued in our society. This is how Japanese people used to avoid
conflicts. They have refrained from expressing their positions and
needs, just letting conflict fade away to nothing as time passes.
Recently, however, people seem to have realized that this is no good
not only for their own "culture of peace" but for their
organization and society. The problem here is they don't know how to
solve their conflict not using their traditional methods.
So, in our seminar, we have to tell them that conflict itself is
not always negative, rather it is their responsibility to handle it
positively. Most of our seminar participants confess that they have
never thought of positive aspect of conflict. They used to see conflict
of any kinds negative as they think conflict does nothing but damage
their relationship with others.
In our seminar we also
explain that individuals have different culture and that no one can
share the same culture. Culture issue is very important, so I
think, here in Japan as many people believe that they share the same
culture as Japanese. The stereotype of this kind may cause such
conflict that when boss imposes his/her value or opinion on his/her
subordinate believing that the two share the same culture since they
are both Japanese working in a Japanese company. There are many
cultural differences between the two. For example, their experiences
and value might be different due to gender, age, education, birth
place, family status and whatever differences. We have observed many
conflicts of this kind are left unsettled in organizations small and
big.
Japanese people also confront with many conflicts when
working outside of Japan. Nevertheless, most of these Japanese have
been sent to their destination overseas with no appropriate preparation
regarding cultural study and communication skill training.
Finally, local government officers and workers, the majority of my
seminar participants, seems to have been at a low when they recently
have confronted with new social value of transparency, accountability
and fairness. These government officers and workers have accustomed to
pass down their words in the past. But currently they are asked to
explain what they are doing to citizens. This is why they come to our
seminar to learn informing skills.
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ADVICE: What advice would you like to
give to the Secretary-General and the General Assembly to promote a
culture of peace and nonviolence during the second half of the Decade? |
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PARTNERSHIPS: What partnerships and
networks does your organization participate in, thus strengthening the
global movement for a culture of peace? |
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PLANS: What new engagements are
planned by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence in the second half of the Decade (2005-2010)? |
Communication is one of the most important key words for the future of Japan, so I think.
Nevertheless,
it is true that no Japanese have ever leaned communication at school
We have learned mathematics, science, language, history .... but
no communication theory and skills. Japanese primary, middle and
high school students and even university students of today have no
chance to learn communication at school.
Life standard
of Japanese people has been improved drastically after the World War
II. On the contrary, however, the number of people who have been
involved in many troubles and conflicts has been increasing. This
is not the case we have observed in Japan alone, though.
We believe that we can provide people in trouble with a chance to
learn "Collaborative Negotiation Skills Training" as a means to
settle their troubles and conflicts. We believe that this is the
only way for us Japanese to settle our troubles and conflicts
peacefully. We are planning to invite a Conflict Resolution
specialist from CCCCR of Colombia University, New York this summer so
that we could increase the number of Conflict Resolution facilitators
in Japan. This is the first, big step to lead to the promotion of a
culture of peace and non-violence movement in Japan, so I believe.
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Postal address of organization
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1-12-20 Unoki Ota-ku, Tokyo, Japan
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E-mail address of organization
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satoko-nozawa@nifty.com
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Website address of organization
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Highest priority action domain of a culture of peace
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Education for a culture of peace
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Second priority action domain of a culture of peace
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Highest priority country of action (or international)
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Japan
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Second priority country of action (or international)
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